uDG Prize Distribution

Contest results are due to be released tomorrow. Hopefully, they will be released sooner than that so I can stop biting my fingernails. Until then, I pose the following question:

Would it be a good idea to have a discussion about who really wants what?

Some members have mentioned that they aren't really in this for the prizes. Others are really hoping to walk away with something more than fame and glory. Should we talk about what we really want so that people's toes don't get accidentally stepped on?

I am not at all sure about this idea, and I am curious to see what you guys say, particularly your reasoning. It seems like it might cause some animosity and not be terribly useful, but I thought I would post it anyway.

Oh, and I assume we're using JustinFic's suggesion for prize distribution and not changing the rules, since my original idea never really got a majority. I think that's fine.

Tobi could use an iPod since we are heading that way with the engine.
Cold hard cash will recoup a fraction of the expenses I spent on assets and
then I can say to my wife "Hah! See we did make money from game dev!"

Immortality in an online comic, thats too cool to pass on and it'll have zombies
and/or a crazy raging on a forum iGame3D guy. woohoo! (scarey)

Music and sound services, you know how much our game needs those and its
not a talent I'm going to pull out of my hat.

Everything else would be really nice to have, but I'll leave that to the final count.

I'm not quite sure how prize distribution is going to work, so I'll wait till winners are announced.

I would like to add though that I have an additional prize from an unofficial sponsor. If you read my dev diary, you may have heard that the Director PR guy at Adobe decided to support Constellation with a copy of Director 11 so I could make my Intel native build.

When it arrived in the mail, it turned out to be two copies. Because they never got back to me as to the intent of the extra copy, and didn't fill out an official sponsorship form, Carlos didn't want to add them to the official sponsor list.

End result, I have an extra copy of Adobe Director 11 courtesy of Adobe, that I would like to go to a Dev who entered the contest. I would like to make sure it will go to someone who will use it. If anyone is interested or has any questions about the software let me know.

I think Bill set a good example with his post. It is non-threatening and expresses his desires concisely. I will go ahead and follow his lead.

I'm not interested in using pre-made content. I really like to create my own assets. To help me do that, I would like some 3D modeling/rendering software. Those 3D packages (Cinema4D, Carrara, modo, Cheetah3D) were what really lured me into entering uDG this year.

I also want something to give my teammate Calvin, who uses Windows. That could be cash, or an iPod, or one of the Windows-compatible games, or that nifty trackball controller. (I would like one of those trackball controllers myself, actually )

Anything beyond that is a bonus to me, though I'm sure I will make use of any prizes I receive. I will happily reorganize my list if someone really wants something that is near the top of my list by chance.

Alrighty, here we go:
Cash is always nice, and is my first choice(easy to divvy up, easy to buy things with(i.e new display)).
I would also like the iPod; been looking into game dev for the iPhone/iPod touch, plus it's nice to have something to show people that they can understand. (not to mention I seem to be the only person on earth who doesn't have a touch of some kind )

And it would be nice to have:
Cheetah3D(which I own) works great for most of my 3D work, but Cinema4D looks like it might be a nice addition to my asset creation suite.
EazyDraw looks very nice/useful, and would really supplement Cheetah3D with it's spline-creation capabilities.
And the trackball controller would be totally cool, but I can live without.

Unity Pro would be nice, but I've only scratched the surface with Indie, and I'm afraid that Pro would bring my already halting performance even further down.

For me, I think Unity would be the best prize. If I don't get it, I will be buying it in the next two weeks or so to do some contract work that must be in Unity. And I'll be needing the Pro version with the asset server... so that would save some serious cash out of my pocket.

I really like Text Wrangler, so if no one else wants BBEdit, I'd be happy to take that. I have Screenflick and an iPod, so go for that. Those music tracks look pretty neat- I don't have a specific need for any of them though.

Well, I would like the iPod Touch or the cash... (but, so does everyone else)

I think I could really use the professional version of REALbasic because then I could port my game to other platforms once it's finished.... and I don't think anyone else wants that. (Maybe Joe Flores might though)

1st Choice: ipod touch from freeverse. - I don't have one yet, and several people have requested an iphone/itouch version of Constellation plus its a cool souvenir of the contest.

2nd Choice: Cinema 4D - I have been meaning to learn a 3d package for awhile. I am a big After Effects user, and Cinema 4D seems to be the 3d package of choice for AE users. It will help me not just with game dev, but with my film/video work.

I have other things on my list, but these are the two most important to me.

If someone close behind me in line really wants Cinema 4D I'd probably be willing to take a pass on it. Its something I might be able to get work to pay for at some point. Just don't tell my boss I said that.

The set of 3D tools available as prizes is really fantastic. The variety will allow us all to get something useful. Personally, I don't have my heart set on any specific tool. I think I'll go for one of the Cheetah 3D licenses and not worry about Cinema4D. Overall, I just want something that will let me model, texture, and render 2D graphics, hopefully with animation. From the looks of Boston and the web site, Cheetah 3D looks like it would be fine for that. Carrara looks like a great tool too.

I just got an email from David with his prize preferences, and it looks like I'll be trying to get one of the audio tools and games.

Here are some more tools I was looking at:
-OmniGraffle: This app would help me in a hundred ways this semester. I've been using graphviz to draw diagrams for my databases class and Adobe Illustrator for other things. They are both a pain in the butt for drawing certain kinds of graphs.
-SoundSoap: I like to record my own sounds, and Audacity's noise filter often doesn't cut it. I have a set of boingy rubber band sounds sitting in my "self-created unused assets" folder, but there's a bit of hum. I would clean these up as soon as possible and upload them in the public domain if I could get my hands on an appropriate tool.
-Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X: My Cocoa-fu is very weak. I want to write Cocoa apps. See a paradox here? Me too. Book!
-Human sound effects library: I have all kinds of awesome ideas for this. Crazy, weird, awesome ideas. Oh man.
-Various music libraries: You guys know that I like to write my own music, but sometimes some orchestral goodness is nice. If someone else wants the music, speak up and I'll bump it down a few spots on my list.
-Those X-Arcade trackball controllers look fun, and if I can't manage to get something else Calvin could use, it would be great to have some hardware to give him, or maybe to play with a bit myself.

tcIgnatius Wrote:Well, I would like the iPod Touch or the cash... (but, so does everyone else)

I think I could really use the professional version of REALbasic because then I could port my game to other platforms once it's finished.... and I don't think anyone else wants that. (Maybe Joe Flores might though)

I could definitely use the professional version of REALBasic as well... Thankfully, there are two (2!) licenses listed in the prizes, so I think we're both okay in that regard...

Otherwise, Unity would be keen, and so would some kind of 3D program (doesn't really matter to me which one, it would just be nice to have something... Bryce and Sketchup do me fine for sprites, but it would be nice to have something that I could expand my abilities with)

I think that as many prizes should be handed out as possible, and personally I would be more than willing to write reviews of each and every last one: (The cash? It was cold, hard, and mostly green. I used it to quiet my girlfriend's incessant sushi cravings, something its developers may not have designed it for, but it seemed to function quite adequately when faced with this task. I would recommend Cash to anyone who needs to buy something, as it was able to do this for me in record time.) If no other reason, everything should be pushed, reviewed, and talked about just so that next year (and beyond) sponsors will know that their contributions are being used, appreciated, and plugged... If nothing else for the good of the contest.

diordna Wrote:The set of 3D tools available as prizes is really fantastic. The variety will allow us all to get something useful. Personally, I don't have my heart set on any specific tool. I think I'll go for one of the Cheetah 3D licenses and not worry about Cinema4D. Overall, I just want something that will let me model, texture, and render 2D graphics, hopefully with animation. From the looks of Boston and the web site, Cheetah 3D looks like it would be fine for that. Carrara looks like a great tool too.

Thought I'd pop in and say that I've heard good things about Silo as well; might look into that for modeling.

Quote:I plan to give in-depth reviews of everything.

That sounds like a good idea. I will copy you and sell it off as my own idea.